Pregnant women told to bypass Bon Secours

Friday

Mar 2, 2012 at 11:17 AM

PORT JERVIS — When Kelly Curry of Port Jervis learned she was pregnant early in February, she says she was surprised and troubled to hear from her Middletown Community Health Center obstetrician, Sumithra Kambi, that she would need to deliver the baby at Orange Regional Medical Center in the Town of Wallkill, because the maternity ward at Bon Secours Community Hospital was closing.

JESSICA COHEN

PORT JERVIS — When Kelly Curry of Port Jervis learned she was pregnant early in February, she says she was surprised and troubled to hear from her Middletown Community Health Center obstetrician, Sumithra Kambi, that she would need to deliver the baby at Orange Regional Medical Center in the Town of Wallkill, because the maternity ward at Bon Secours Community Hospital was closing.

Getting to Bon Secours, where she had her first child, was enough of a challenge without a car.

"Nobody in my family drives," she said. "Getting to Orange Regional would be a problem. I would have to find someone to take me. I would have to call my aunt who lives in Sparrowbush."

Other women, not willing to speak on the record, say they also have been told they would need to bypass Bon Secours and deliver at Orange Regional.

It's a matter of concern not just to women lacking cars but also to opponents of the closure of the Bon Secours maternity ward. Critics of the plan contend that having to cross a mountain to deliver in the Town of Wallkill endangers women and their children and discourages young families from moving to Port Jervis.

Bon Secours has applied to the state Health Department for permission to close the maternity ward. Health Department spokesman Peter Constantakes has said the hospital is legally prohibited from decertifying maternity ward beds without state approval.

"Potentially, the hospital can be cited or fined for violating the regulatory requirements ... [i]f the facility closes its maternity services prior to receiving approval from the State Health Department or the Public Health and Health Planning Council," Constantakes wrote in an email.

Community activist Jim McMahon, member of a group affiliated with the Democratic Alliance of Orange County, wrote in a complaint to Jonathan Wettergreen, health program administrator at the state Health Department, that the redirection of Bon Secours maternity patients to the Town of Wallkill "is, in effect, de facto decertification."

McMahon will be part of a community group making a presentation March 9 to state Health Department officials, citing evidence the maternity ward should stay open.

However, Curry will not be going to Orange Regional for this pregnancy. She miscarried, and a cousin drove her to Bon Secours. She stayed in the maternity ward, where she found that the room where she stayed when she had her son was now under construction, and the front desk was being remodeled.

Asked about the redirection of maternity patients to Orange Regional, Constantakes said, "either DOH or the Public Health and Health Planning Council will need to approve the [Bon Secours] closure plan. Until that time, Bon Secours must be able to take patients in its maternity ward, but whether patients are referred to Bon Secours has no bearing on consideration of the closure plan."

Of the referrals by MCHC, Deborah Marshall, senior vice president of Bon Secours Health Systems, said, "I cannot speak for them or their referrals." As for the remodeling, she said, "We do have some sections of the hospital that are undergoing a much-needed facelift, converting some rooms to private rooms, but they are not affecting the maternity unit in any way."